Sheriffs race to be decided Tuesday

Morgan County voters will decide in Tuesday’s primary election who will serve the next term as Morgan County Sheriff.

With no Democratic candidate to face in the general election, a winner will be decided between incumbent Sheriff Randy Duvendack and candidate Martin Coad.

Between the two, Duvendack boasts almost 40 years of experience in the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department and has served the past two terms as sheriff, while Coad says his supporters are wanting a change.

An issue for several elections, Coad says his priority is making sure that deputies are patrolling the county 24/7.

“It can strictly be done almost immediately as soon as I get in with schedule changing,” Coad said. “The sheriff has the availability to move and cover the shifts that are still open.”

Duvendack said limited staff means there are currently two days a week when deputies are not patrolling for a few hours but are on call. After losing four deputies in the past four years, he said, new officers are being trained and he thinks 24-hour patrols could be done soon.

“We’re pretty close to that one,” he said. “We’ve always talked about getting another deputy. If I had another deputy, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

If re-elected, Duvendack said he believed some of his priorities in the coming term would be making improvements to the jail, including replacing the roof and some repair and renovation inside.

“I have experience in managing the jail and courthouse and, from my perspective, that’s the biggest liability,” Duvendack said. “That’s the first thing I do every morning. Checking on who’s been booked in, keeping track of medical issues. It’s kind of an overrated thing that people don’t think about. But that’s where most of our liability is, is in the jail.”

Both candidates said they were in favor of a plan to combine dispatch with the Jacksonville Police Department.

“We’re all kind of waiting in limbo for the decision from FutureGen,” Duvendack said. “That’s kind of what we’re waiting on. If that comes through it would be awesome. If not, there would be a lot of details to work out.”

Coad said his other priorities would include making sure that deputies are more visible in the county.

“Par of what I want to do also is be extremely visible in village board meetings. Go to go to each village, each city, introduce myself and say, what can the sheriff’s department do to help your police department work better.”

Cody Bozarth can be reached at (217) 245-6121 ext. 233 or on Twitter @ JCnews_Cody.